No-confidence motion tabled against Nepal PM Oli

Nepal's Opposition parties tabled a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister K P Oli.

Kathmandu: Nepal's Opposition parties on Monday tabled a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister K P Oli after the embattled leader refused to resign despite his coalition government being reduced to a minority, plunging the country into fresh political instability.

CPN (Maoist Center), Nepali Congress and CPN-United tabled the no-confidence motion to oust Oli a day after Prachanda's Maoist party withdrew support to the the nine- month-old CPN-UML-led coalition government and claimed that he will form the new government with the backing of the opposition.

Prachanda proposed the motion while Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba seconded it.

NC leader Ram Krishna Yadav said the motion was filed after 183 NC parliamentarians, 70 from Maoist and three of CPN-United put their signatures in the 601-member Constituent Assembly, Kathmandu Post reported.

The three parties have the combined strengthen of 292 votes in the Parliament.

Oli's Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) currently has 175 elected seats in parliament, far fewer than the 299 needed to win a vote of confidence.

Meanwhile, six Madhesi parties, whose combined strength is 50, have also announced to support the no-trust motion.

Earlier, the ministers belonging to the CPN-Maoist Centre had resigned en mass from the government.

NC leader Ramesh Lekhak and Maoist leader Ram Narayan Bidari made preparations for the no-confidence motion.

Oli has previously refused to quit and said he would rather face the parliament. A vote of confidence vote may take place next week but it could take weeks for a new coalition government to take power in the Himalayan nation, struggling to overcome the effects of the earthquakes last year.

Oli became prime minister last October, heading Nepal's eighth government in the past 10 years.

Cracks began to appear in the coalition two months ago when alliance partners threatened to topple Oli. He survived that attempt by drawing up an 11th-hour deal with Prachanda.

Prachanda, in a statement, yesterday said that his party withdrew support to the CPN-UML-led coalition government as Oli was hesitating to implement the past agreements -? the nine-point agreement signed between the two parties in May and the gentlemen's agreement for the change of guard.

He said the party's decision to withdraw support from the government would help build the national consensus.

Prime Minister Oli and the Maoist chief had reached a verbal agreement in May to hand over the leadership of the government to the latter after the Parliament endorses the new budget, according to sources close to Prachanda.

However, Oli turned a deaf ear towards the top Maoist leader and asserted that he would continue in power till the new election is held in one and a half year's time.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the CPN-UML's leadership, the Maoist Centre had recently intensified intra-party and inter-party dialogues to form a new government under its leadership.